When he took over \u2013 it was 1 April 1989 \u2013 Giuseppe Berta was 29 years old, with a training experience at UBS, and a job to learn from scratch. Running a home for the elderly is no joke. We need to work on several levels: staff management, relations with guests and family members, bureaucratic procedures, financial administration. And then there are relations with the canton, with the municipality and, as in the case of the San Giorgio in Brissago institute, with the Foundation. Berta armed herself with holy patience, obtained a master's degree in socio-health economics, and faced the challenges that, year after year, posed themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the beds began there were 43, compared to today's 56, it was still the nuns who took care of the management and care. There were no computers and accounting was done manually. At the end of February, after 34 years, Giuseppe Berta will retire, but will remain at the disposal of the new director to ensure the handover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the past there was no formula for part-time work \u2013 he explains \u2013 while today many young people ask to work at 70% or 80%. In Brissago we were lucky, because we had a modest turn over. However, since most of the staff are women, replacements must also be managed during maternity periods. We have asked the canton several times to increase staff but now the criteria are those and apply to everyone. It is a reality that affects all homes. At night we have a nurse and a caregiver all over the house, you will understand that a simple emergency can become a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, Giuseppe Berta continues, \u201cover the last 15 years, the number of female workers has increased, but the administrative and bureaucratic burden has also increased, even for those in charge of care. That is why we are always a little bit in an emergency. And let us not forget that this is a heavy job, especially for those of a certain age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deputy mayor Fabio Branchini, head of the Dicastery of Sociality, knows well the problems of St. George, because in recent years he has worked there as an economist, and today represents the Municipality in the Board of Trustees. \u201cThe shortage of staff is chronic \u2013 he says \u2013. It is a problem that does not depend on the municipality, which has a simple \u2018accompanying\u2019 and planning role in management, but on the parameters set at cantonal level. And it is difficult to find staff, because to work with the elderly you must be brought, in my opinion more than a job is a vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We said that the number of beds went from 43 in 1989 to 56 today. An increase obtained thanks to a new one built in 2000. But the population is ageing and in the future it will be necessary to find space for at least 80 guests. Casa San Giorgio is located in a magnificent position, half a hill, overlooking the lake. But it no longer has room for expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a structure that is coming to an end \u2013 explains Branchini \u2013. It is located in a beautiful area, but relatively far from the country and very uncomfortable for the self-sufficient elderly. In addition, we have many double rooms and very few single rooms, and we know that today the elderly ask for individual spaces. There is no doubt: the house must be rebuilt from scratch, on new land, with modern criteria and with a multi-storey project. It will be the challenge of the coming years. For this reason we started a negotiation with Hildebrand, to create a new institute attached to the clinic. An elderly home communicating with a rehabilitation clinic would probably have been a first Swiss one. We were one step away from the agreement, but in the end Hildebrand\u2019s management gave up because they had a restructuring project and considered it impossible to manage two shipyards at the same time. And I understand them. But we are still discussing with them to find land in the area of the clinic that we could use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let's take a step back. The most critical problem in the last two years has been the pandemic for institutions for the elderly. \"Without a doubt,\" says Berta. It was heavy for the staff and guests. Paradoxically, perhaps more for relatives than for the elderly. In Brissago we were relatively lucky, because in the first wave we had no infections, neither among the residents nor among the collaborators, apart from a couple of cases. But in the second, in November 2020, Covid also entered San Giorgio, and we had eight deaths, which for all of us were dramatic. However, there was a lot of understanding on the part of the family members, as we have always applied the rules rigorously. It was a terrible time for everyone, with limitations, fear, bewilderment, and some elders who didn't even understand what was going on. We organised video calls to try to ensure relationships with families and for many guests it was an absolute novelty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in recent years there have also been episodes that Giuseppe Berta remembers with emotion: \u201cIn particular, the celebrations for centenarians and centenarians. We had a number of guests who passed this milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In closing, two personal notes on the director of Casa San Giorgio, starting with the accident that forced him into a wheelchair: \u201cIt happened in 1990. I was driving back to Brissago and a driver hit me and invaded my lane after passing a bicycle. But, all in all, in the misfortune I was lucky, in the meantime because I survived and then because I continued to do everything I did before \u2013 or almost did \u2013 to cultivate my passions, hunting and the mountains: For about 20 years, I managed the administrative part of the Rifugio al Legn, which I helped to create together with Maurizio Pozzorini and Marco Pagani.\u2019<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interview with the Director, who will leave his post in February, and the Head of the Ministry, who is talking about the future.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brissago.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}